Invitation to the Classics

Nancy, I’ve seen your post.  I’m kind of having a “busy Saturday” but I’ll mull this over and when I get a little time I’ll post. 

Hi, Nancy.  Where do the weekends go?

OK.  I want to start off saying that I am really impressed by your desire to read “the good stuff.”  I have “Invitation to the Classics” too, and have read several other books on reading the classics.  I occasionally sign up for groups that choose a book like the Iliad or something to read together.  I’m really attracted by the idea of “the Great Conversation” and getting in on this myself.  I read all the wonderful things other people have written about these great classic books, and I periodically convince myself that I “ought to” read them.  It will be good for me, maybe we can read these books with my children in school and then, won’t they be smart?

Now I’d like to share with you the list of books I’ve attempted in the last few years and, I confess, failed to ever finish:

The Iliad

The Aeneid

The Confessions, St. Augustine

City of God, Augustine

Dialogues, Plato

The Rhetoric and the Poetics, Aristotle

Walden, Thoreau

There are more I can’t recall at the moment.

LOL.  I really don’t know why I keep applying all these “oughts” to my reading.  Sometimes I get so attracted by what the “world” thinks of as intelligent and worthwhile.  Now, all of these books DO have things in them that are worthwhile.  I do believe that.  The good authors I’ve read who urge me to read these books DO see a geniune benefit in them.  The trouble is, they don’t know, and can’t know, what God’s plans for my mind are right now.  The more I think about it, the less I think that God has a “classics reading list” for all His children.  I mean, obviously He has given us the Bible–there’s our “required reading”  But beyond that, I think it is safe to think that He has a rather more individualized plan for what he wants each of us to learn.  You are expressing some doubt, I think, that His plan for you right now includes the Iliad.  I think you need to take stock of those feelings.  You know, when we decide we are having trouble with a difficult book, there are many reasons.  One might be we are just rebelling because it’s too hard.  Or perhaps we really don’t like the subject matter.  Or perhaps there just really isn’t anything that we can draw from it then.  If it’s just the first reason, I often try to convince myself to keep going for at least a while.  I’m stubborn enough not to want to be defeated just because it’s “too hard”    If it is the second reason, sometimes I quit and sometimes I don’t, depending.  There are some things I just don’t want to read about!  And some that I thought I didn’t, but I’m glad I persevered and did read.  For the third reason, though–if I am really questioning something’s value–if I am beginning to compare it to network TV, lol–then I try and take that book to the Lord and ask Him “Is there anything here that You need me to know?  Do I need this book right now?  Am I just being lazy or is this just  not where I need to be?  Is there some other way to grow and learn instead?” and then I try to take what I feel seriously.  I have ditched many books after doing this.  Including the Iliad.  Now, maybe you aren’t supposed to–I don’t know.  And maybe I’ll one day return to some of those books.  But I really want to find what I need most right now, and I know that He can help me with that. 

Sometimes when I read all the lists and books of “oughts” I need a little perspective.  There are all those great books lists.  Susan Wise Bauer has a whole book out with all kinds of recommendations.  (I have to admit, I’d need  mental health services if I were to try to read all the depressing books in a row she recommends).  My own way and style of reading has gotten kind of eclectic.  I am beginning to trust that the books I need will find their way to me–and I am growing less afraid of getting rid of ones that just aren’t what I need.  A little book that sometimes helps me remember needed perspective is The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, by Steve Leveen.  It might be a bit of a balance to all those “ought-to” lists!

I hope this helps a little.  I think this is a topic definitely worth talking about, both in terms of what we read ourselves and what we insist on our children reading. 

Michelle

Thanks, Michelle! I really enjoy reading your replies on this forum. I have been struggling lately with a similar issue – the one you mention about you and your kids “being so smart” 🙂  My oldest son is doing AO yr 7 and several of the books he does not like, as well as the time period.  i also have 4 other kids, a toddler, 2 working in AO yr 1, and one who should be AO yr 4, but I have beed so stretched that he is sort of sliding by without doing much at all 🙁  i came over here to think about switching tracks, at least with my younger set (10 and under), and combining them but every time I start looking I feel like SCM is too easy and I talk myself out of it. I have been immersed in AO so long (5 years) that anything else looks lacking; however because I still have to help my oldest with these difficult books I also feel like I am shorting the younger guys! My mind just keeps wavering back and forth and it all comes down to the fact that I want them to be “well read”and smart! Not the best goal!

So anyway in a roundabout way your post is a help to me in reminding me what our big goal needs to be – glorifying God. Lately I have been looking at and comparing AO, SCM, Latin Centered, and Truthquest. I have to get brutal and make a decision and move on!

If you can make anything of this ramble and have any more words of wisdom – I am all eyes 😉

Olivia

Oh, Nancy—you want me to move NORTH???  I must admit, this winter I’m again contemplating moving . . . but to TAHITI.  LOL